If statement

In the last article, we looked at describing hardware conceptually using always blocks. What kind of hardware can we describe? What are the limitations? What kinds of Verilog statement can be used in always blocks to describe hardware? Well, we have already seen the use of an if statement to describe a multiplexer, so let’s dwell on if statements for this month’s tutorial.

always @(sensitivity-list) // invalid Verilog code!
begin
  // statements
end

The code snippet above outlines a way to describe combinational logic using always blocks. To model a multiplexer, an if statement was used to describe the functionality. In addition, all of the inputs to the multiplexer were specified in the sensitivity list.

reg f;

always @(sel or a or b)
begin
  if (sel == 1)
    f = a;
  else
    f = b;
end

Register assignment

It is a fundamental rule of the Verilog HDL that any object that is assigned a value in an always statement must be declared as a register variable. Hence,

reg f; // must be declared before it is used in a statement

Combinational logic

It transpires that in order to create Verilog code that can be input to a synthesis tool for the synthesis of combinational logic, the requirement for all inputs to the hardware to appear in the sensitivity list is a golden rule.

Golden Rule 1:

To synthesize combinational logic using an always block, all inputs to the design must appear in the sensitivity list.

Altogether there are 3 golden rules for synthesizing combinational logic, we will address each of these golden rules over the next couple of articles in this tutorial.

The if statement in Verilog is a sequential statement that conditionally executes other sequential statements, depending upon the value of some condition. An if statement may optionally contain an else part, executed if the condition is false. Although the else part is optional, for the time being, we will code up if statements with a corresponding else rather than simple if statements. In order to have more than one sequential statement executed in an if statement, multiple statements are bracketed together using the begin..end keywords,

reg f, g; // a new reg variable, g

always @(sel or a or b)
begin
  if (sel == 1)
  begin
    f = a;
    g = ~a;
  end
  else
  begin
    f = b;
    g = a & b;
  end
end

If statements can be nested if you have more complex behaviour to describe:

reg f, g;

always @(sel or sel_2 or a or b)
  if (sel == 1)
  begin
    f = a;
    if (sel_2 == 1)
      g = ~a;
    else
      g = ~b;
  end
  else
  begin
    f = b;
    if (sel_2 == 1)
      g = a & b;
    else
      g = a | b;
  end

Notice that the code is beginning to look a little bit confusing! In the code above, begin..end blocks have only be used where they must be used, that is, where we have multiple statements. It is probably a good idea to use begin..end blocks throughout your Verilog code — you end up typing in a bit more Verilog but it’s easier to read. Also, if you have to add more functionality to an always block later on (more sequential statement), at least the begin..end block is already in place. So,

reg f, g, h; // yes, an extra reg variable, h

always @(sel or sel_2 or a or b)
begin
  if (sel == 1)
  begin
    f = a;
    if (sel_2 == 1)
    begin
      h = ~b;
      g = ~a;
    end
    else
    begin
      g = a | b;
      h = a & b;
    end
  end
  else
  begin
    if (sel_2 == 1)
    begin
      g = a & b;
      h = ~(a & b);
    end
    else
    begin
      h = ~(a | b);
      g = a | b;
    end
    f = b;  // here's f!
  end
end

Note that the order of assignments to f, g and h has been played around with (just to keep you on your toes!).

Synthesis considerations

If statements are synthesized by generating a multiplexer for each register assigned within the if statement. The select input on each mux is driven by logic determined by the if condition, and the data inputs are determined by the expressions on the right hand sides of the assignments. During subsequent optimization by a synthesis tool, the multiplexer architecture may be changed to a structure using and-or-invert gates as surrounding functionality such as the a & b and the ~a can be merged into complex and-or-invert gates to yield a more compact hardware implementation.

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